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Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering has been awarded a grant to support two women as Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellows in Thayer's new Ph.D. Innovation Program. The goal of this award is to encourage full participation of women in the nation's first doctoral-level engineering Innovation Program designed to address the rising need for people with both technical and entrepreneurial expertise.

Clare Boothe Luce

The award will begin supporting students in Fall 2010 for their first two years in the program. Following that, Thayer School will continue to support the Luce Fellows for three additional years. This continued support is to ensure the freedom to pursue innovative research ideas while also gaining an understanding of the technology commercialization process—skills vital to the next generation of academic leaders in engineering and applied science.

"The Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowships provide a unique opportunity to attract outstanding female candidates to our new Ph.D. Innovation Program," said Joe Helble, Professor and Dean of Engineering at Dartmouth. "This program is the first of its kind to combine business fundamentals with doctoral-level engineering expertise."

Since its first grants in 1989 the Clare Boothe Luce Program has become the single most significant source of private support for women in science, mathematics and engineering. Clare Boothe Luce, the widow of Henry R. Luce, was a playwright, journalist, U.S. Ambassador to Italy, and the first woman elected to Congress from Connecticut. In her bequest establishing this program, she sought "to encourage women to enter, study, graduate, and teach" in science, mathematics and engineering.

The Clare Boothe Luce Program is a component of the Henry Luce Foundation established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., to honor his parents who were missionary educators in China. The Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities.